Lessons for the Day

My Wednesday involves a three-hour class in the afternoon. A boring microeconomics subject, but is, as our professor usually tells us, a necessary thing to learn for "branding" of economists. The lecture is fortunately injected with interesting exchange of thoughts and knowledge about the more vibrant real world issues.

Earlier, Ms. Sarah Daway, probably a legend in recent UPSE history, dropped by the class to share some words of wisdom as requested by our professor, and we were given the chance to ask her questions about some things. She is currently taking her PhD in the US (I forgot the school, just a slight recall of the name but better not mention it since I'm not really sure hehe). Most of the questions from my classmates were about getting in the graduate program of schools abroad, and how economics was taught there. Apparently, despite UPSE being already mathematical (my thought), US economic schools are more mathematical in their approach. Better brush up your math and calculus if you want to go there.

What struck me more was her faith. She said something like this (paraphrased, hope I got it right), "Pray. Sometimes, it is as if things are going against you, but if you believe Him, things will turn out right."

In the "class proper," Prof. Fabella also gave some words of wisdom. He said that, though Ms. Daway would never say this, she is a very hardworking woman. She reads all the suggested readings and more! He further added that some people are simply bright, but what is more important is how hard you work. Nobody should outwork you.

After the class, in a (unintended) chat, he added, regarding graduate schools abroad, that the name of the school does not matter very much anymore. Some people are aiming for the Ivy league schools, but what is more important is your network.

He further added that enrolling in a non-Ivy league school also allows you to be very productive. And as to expanding your network, one way would be to write authors of journal articles or other economists whose work you got interested in. Why not? I remember I did that while writing our undergraduate thesis. The author of the original work where we based our thesis replied to our e-mail, and we responded. However, it was already late when I realized that it remained in my Drafts folder and never got sent. I was not Internet-savvy yet that time, unlike now when I think I am already addicted to the online world.

So what economic concept did I learn today? Oh, some stuff. ;)